High Court to Mull Student Privacy

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, January 10, 2002

Associated Press Writer

The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide if colleges can be sued for giving out information about students, like allegations of sexual assault.

The case is one of two the court is reviewing this year involving student privacy. Justices are also considering whether letting one student grade another's paper in class violates federal privacy law.

The same law is at issue in this case, which pits Gonzaga University against a graduate, Ru Paster, who claims he was denied a teaching job because the college revealed private information about him to the Washington state educational system, a potential employer.

School officials suspected Paster had assaulted and stalked a female classmate. The student never filed charges.

Paster said that sharing the unproven allegations without his consent violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

A jury ordered the Spokane college to pay the 1994 graduate about $1 million for defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence, breach of contract and violations of the federal act.

The Supreme Court will consider reversing that decision, which had been partially upheld by the Washington Supreme Court. Justices will hear arguments this spring.

John G. Roberts Jr., representing the Jesuit university, told the Supreme Court that if the ruling stands, it "would be contrary to precedent, destructive to the private organizations' freedom, and an open floodgate for lawsuits."

Roberts said that Congress never intended for public or private colleges to face lawsuits over the disclosure of education records. He said universities could be sued every time law agencies and other government officials request student records.

Charles Wiggins, another attorney for the university, said Friday that the case will be far-reaching.

Paster is named in the Supreme Court case as John Doe. His lawyer, Laurel H. Siddoway, said the lawsuit challenged a disclosure practice under which "sensitive education record information about students was casually and routinely shared."

Siddoway had urged the Supreme Court not to take the college's appeal.